How could so many smart people be so conveniently dense?

That’s the question that House members aren’t asking the witnesses before them. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., just got close in questioning Hewlett-Packard’s outside attorney, Larry Sonsini.

Inslee noted that at no point did Sonsini raise any concerns about how the investigation was being conducted. The same thing could be said for former chairman Patricia Dunn, Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd, who will testify later, and the executives who refused to testify earlier today.

But he also didn’t ask. He’s supposed to be the best lawyer in Silicon Valley, and a key question about the legality of such techniques doesn’t enter his mind?

As a reporter, I’ve had dozens of such conversations with editors. Any time a reporter gets information on a company — trading records, internal memos, whatever — the first thing a good editor does is ask how they got it.

It’s just implausible that corporate executives and attorneys don’t ask the same thing.